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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Apple Buys Music Recognition App Shazam

Apple has struck a deal and acquired Shazam for $400 million. Apple’s digital assistant Siri has been using this app in the past for enabling its users to recognize the songs being played on their iPhones. Shazam has got a massive user base. It is estimated that the app has been downloaded over 1 billion times. Shazam has over 120 million active users who use the app more than 20 million times a day. The users are loyal and this could lead to more paying customers for Apple Music.

Shazam is a free app for iOS and Android users that can identify songs that are played close at hand as well as provide other features.

While the users are waiting for the song or audio clip to be identified, Shazam shows ads. They also display ads on the page where the identity of the song is revealed.

Shazam is an app that allows users to identify songs, movies, TV shows and advertisements from short audio clips being played and using a microphone on the device.

It will help you identify any music playing around you. Through Shazam, the user can follow any of the artists and even listen to what they are discovering. You can also listen to the latest trends in music and the most popular songs in the world.

Besides identifying the songs and matching it with its central database, Shazam has been enhancing its AR (augmented Reality) features. This technology can be used where graphics more than virtual reality comes into play.

History

In 2012, TV users in the US could identify the music being played, the cast of the shows and all the other show information online and engage in social networking.

In Dec 2013, Shazam was among the top ten apps in the world.

In 2014, there were more than a 100 million monthly active users of Shazam. By using Shazam, the users were able to identify 15 billion songs.

In 2016, the mobile apps of Shazam were downloaded more than 1 billion times.

In Dec 2017, Apple Inc. purchased Shazam for $400 million.

Working Principle

Just a short audio clip is required to create an acoustic fingerprint. By using the microphone in a smartphone or a computer, Shazam compares it with a central database to find a match. All the information based on the audio clip, such as the artist’s name, the lyrics, song title and the album will be sent to the user.

Shazam can also identify prerecorded music that is being broadcasted from a television, radio or any music playing in a cinema or club, provided there is not much background noise.

Compatability with OS

Shazam is an app that is compatable for Mac, a desktop application as well as those that have Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry systems.

In the case of the desktop, when the app is enabled, any song that is playing on or close to the computer will be picked up by the app. Shazam can also pick up any of the of the songs on the Youtube videos or TV shows which the user may be viewing.